127.0.0.1 - IP Address Explained

Have you ever seen the address 127.0.0.1 and wondered what it was?

This article will explain the importance of this address.

Simply put: 127.0.0.1 is your "loopback" address. Its the address of your own network card in your machine. Every internet networked IPv4 device share this address. This address is also very important.

If you ping 127.0.0.1 you are effectively pinging yourself. This is useful to determine weather your protocol stack is working properly on your network card. Try it yourself...

Start > Run > cmd

This will open connamd prompt, type:

>ping 127.0.0.1

You should see that your are getting replies from the address and they should all be successful. This means your network card is functioning properly. I told you it was a useful address! The address is used for troubleshooting network problems.

The address will be changing for IPv6. The loopback address in IPv6 is ::1.It will serve the same purpose as the IPV4 address in terms of troubleshooting.

Now if you see the joke "There's no place like 127.0.0.1" you know what it means..home!

Regards,

Richard.